


If I Fall

by JustAnotherWriter (N1ghtshade)



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kinda..., Maximum Ride Au, Winged!Mac, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 11:56:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18590776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/N1ghtshade/pseuds/JustAnotherWriter
Summary: Jack Dalton wasn't expecting his freelance security gig to land him a job at a facility doing human experimentation. He really didn't expect to throw his career away by breaking out the test subject he was hired to keep from escaping, the experimentally enhanced son of the lead project scientist. But he was definitely, absolutely, completely unprepared for how much he was going to care about this lonely, traumatized, kid. A kid who just happens to have...wings.





	If I Fall

Jack’s momma always told him parents develop a sixth sense for when their child is in trouble. “I could sleep through a hurricane when I was a teenager,” she always said, chuckling, “But the minute you were born, I’d wake up in the night if you so much as mumbled in your sleep.” 

Jack’s never claimed to be a sound sleeper. Three Delta tours and the PTSD to go with that doesn’t make for a good night’s rest. But he’s still more alert now than he’s been since he got out of the army.

Not that his kid’s nightmares are anything anyone could sleep through. Ever since he got Mac out of that lab, brought him out here to the cabin, Mac hasn’t once slept through the night without dreaming he’s back there in the same horrible place where he was experimented on by his _own_ _damn father._ Jack wishes he’d have put two in the man’s skull when he had the chance. But Mac’s a better person than he is. Or he was just still so obedient to James that he wouldn’t let anyone kill him.

Still, Mac’s safe from that man and his twisted plans now, and that’s all that matters. Bit by bit, he’s adjusting to a world that’s bigger than the cage he called home for the past eighteen years of his life. But it takes time, and Jack’s learning patience the hard way. A life where there are choices and freedom isn’t something someone learns overnight. 

Jack can hear Mac, no longer screaming, just sniffling and gasping. He rolls out of bed, puts on his slippers and the sweater Mac always likes to hug him in because it smells like the cedar trunk and the old wool is worn soft (kid has a thing about sensory stuff like that, Jack guesses that’s what happens when you live in a cold cage in a building with grey walls and a permanent antiseptic smell) and grabs a pair of slippers for the splintery floor. He taps on Mac’s door carefully. 

“Can I come in, kiddo?” He knows Mac’s always just going to say yes, but it’s giving him the choice that’s important.

“Sure.” Mac’s voice is shaky and a little hoarse, which means the screams that woke Jack must have been just as bad as he thought.  _ Good thing this cabin’s in the middle of nowhere. _ He steps inside, into the organized chaos that is Mac’s room. 

In some ways, Mac’s like any other teenage boy, but instead of band posters his walls are covered in dried leaves and flowers, with the names tacked under them in the kid’s messy scrawl. His books are all over, only about half of them actually in the bookshelf, and they’re about everything from astrophysics to marine biology (granted, they’re grade school level but it’s a start). Mac had quickly outpaced Jack’s ability to answer his questions about the world around him, and Jack resorted to driving into town and hitting up the used book stores. Only to find that when he brought them home the kid just stared at them in bewilderment. He’d never even been taught to read.  

The kid’s a quick study, he made it through early reading books in a couple weeks, and although Jack sees him frowning over the more advanced books Jack brought him, he’s determined to learn.  _ I can’t believe they locked a wonderful, intelligent kid like this in a cage and tried to turn him into a weapon.  _ And were promptly disappointed when Mac turned out to be too innately good to become the cold-blooded monster James was trying to create. 

Mac himself is curled up in the corner, he’s still not using the bed but he is using the blankets. Jack can count five of them that he can see, the red-and-green afghan, the striped wool one, the patchwork quilt that’s so big it buries the kid, the checkered fleece one, and the plain brown one. Mac likes the variety and the colors, and the warmth. Jack watches him bury himself in the blankets and can’t help thinking of how he found the kid in that lab, locked in that cold cage with nothing to keep him warm aside from a pair of blue scrub pants and his wings.

Wings that are currently almost entirely hidden. Jack can barely see the white and gold feathers poking out of the heap of cloth. They’re pulled in tight to Mac’s body, the way they always are when he’s scared.

“Hey, hey, it’s alright. I’m here, okay?” Jack sits down next to the heap of blankets, and Mac looks up at him, bright blue eyes glinting out from under the messy hair. Jack reaches out slowly, he learned the hard way not to make sudden movements, and runs a hand over the top edges of the wings.

Some of the feathers there are still broken and damaged, but most of them are finally starting to get glossy and healthy. Jack knows no one took care of the kid’s wings that well when he was in that lab; his feathers were so dull Jack assumed they were white and tan. But after a few weeks at the cabin, with proper food and Jack washing the wings with something other than harsh industrial soap, the golden edges began to actually glitter a little. 

At first Mac was reluctant to let Jack touch his wings, but they were all bloody and grimy after their narrow escape. Jack’s pretty sure washing them was the first time anyone touched Mac’s wings for any other reason that to examine them for another test. Because the second he started running his hands over the feathers, as carefully as he could because there were cuts and scrapes and bruises (fitting a winged kid in a vent shaft was a trip) Mac had just...melted. Since then, Jack’s learned that gently stroking the wings is a good way to get the kid to calm down. He has to start slow, and Mac usually shudders a little when he first touches them, but it’s always soothing in the long run.

“You doing okay?” Jack asks. Mac just nods slightly. His wings are still wrapped tightly around him, and vibrating a little with stress. Jack runs his hands slowly down them, then moves his hands back up , ghosting them over the spot where the feathers are still badly crushed. It’s two places on the wing, near the spot where they join Mac’s shoulders. Some of the other feathers are broken or bent, and Jack wonders if the kid’ll molt like a bird and get new, undamaged ones, but these are...well, they look like they’ve been forced into this warped position. It’s not just an accidental collision with a wall or a piece of furniture or Jack. He’s washed the kid’s wings enough times now to know that those feathers are right over the spot where he’s had to treat raw sores that looked suspiciously like rope burn. 

When he brushes over the feathers, Mac flinches violently away from him, and his wings suddenly unfurl from around his body and tuck in at his back. Jack ducks to avoid getting knocked over. “I’m sorry, I’ll stop. You don’t have to make me.”

“Whoa, whoa, it’s okay.” Jack keeps his hands away from Mac’s wings, up where Mac can see them. “Kiddo, it’s just me, it’s Jack.”

Mac looks up at him, panting, eyes wide and panicky. “I-I…” 

“Mac, I’m not gonna hurt you.” Jack shakes his head, keeping his eyes on Mac’s. “I won’t.”

Mac blinks, slowly. “I’m sorry…”

“You don’t have to apologize to me for anything.” Jack keeps his voice low. “I’m the one who should be sorry, I scared you.”

“I just...It was just the dream,” Mac says softly. “And then you touched where he used to tie them…” 

Jack shudders. He’d seen all of the awful-looking restraints the scientists were using to keep Mac’s wings controlled. But most of those were designed not to harm the feathers, unlike what clearly happened as a result of James’s actions.  _ Damaging feathers meant risking Mac’s usefulness, but clearly James didn’t care what his cruelty did. _

“He said I shouldn’t be using them to make myself feel better. That it was a stupid, childish habit and I had to stop, because it made me look weak and scared. And then he started tying them.” Mac shivers. “I tried to stop, I did, but...sometimes it was so cold in there, and they were warm…” Jack shudders again.  _ Of course he was cold, he had barely any clothes. _ And then James was cruel enough to take his only comfort away from him. “He said the more I struggled, the worse it would be. Every time he had to tie them he made the knots tighter.” Mac shivers. “That’s...that’s what was wrong the day I fell. I’d been shivering all night, the ropes cut into my wings and they hurt so much…” 

Jack swallows a sob. The first day he saw the kid was because he was being rushed past Jack’s post in the hall down to the medical wing, clearly broken arm resting on his chest, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth...and his wings visible even under the sheet someone had spread over him. 

_ The first time I knew what I was really there to do. I wasn’t there to keep people out of a government weapons lab, I was there to keep a scared kid  _ inside _. _

He shuffles a little closer to Mac. “I’m so, so, so sorry, kiddo.” He’s known, since he saw the scars, what must have happened, but hearing it from Mac is just devastating. This kid is the strongest person Jack knows, to still be  _ functioning _ after being subjected to such cruelty. “I promise you, I won’t touch your wings without your permission, ever, and I will never ever restrain them.” 

Mac’s wings shudder, then slowly unfurl from where they’re tightly tucked against his back, wrapping around his shoulders once again. “It doesn’t bother you?”

“No. No. You’re allowed to do whatever makes you feel safe, okay?” Jack says softly. “I’m so sorry if I scared you when I was trying to take care of the sores.”

“You had to, and you made it stop hurting,” Mac says. “You can touch them again if you want, I know it’s you now, and I won’t get scared like that.”

“Is that what you want?”

Mac nods. “You make me feel safe.” Jack feels the first real tear trickle down his cheek as he slowly slides a hand over one of the wings, feeling the change where the sleek feathers are crushed and mangled. 

“I haven’t...I haven’t tried to fly again since I fell,” Mac chokes out. “I dream of that too. I don’t want to fall again.” Jack’s heart aches for this kid even more.  _ He has wings and he’s been so traumatized he’s afraid to even use them. _ “I don’t even know if I can, now, after what he did.” Jack swallows hard. 

“That’s okay, kiddo. I don’t care if you can fly or not. I don’t care if your wings don’t work properly anymore. They’re beautiful and perfect anyway, and so are you.”  _ James would have called him useless and gotten rid of him. _ Jack’s grateful the man didn’t give up on Mac before Jack was able to get him out. 

He suddenly has an armful of crying kid, and he rocks back onto his heels in shock before putting his arms around Mac and stroking down his back and the wings. “It’s okay, kiddo. It’s okay. No one is gonna hurt you here, and no one cares that you’re different.” He feels Mac’s wings wrap around  _ him _ , and suddenly stops, holding himself perfectly still. This isn’t the first time Mac’s cried on his shoulder, but it’s the first time he’s done  _ this. _

Mac says nothing, but Jack feels the wings slide up and down his back, the way his  _ hands _ are on Mac’s, and he has the sudden realization that Mac saw  _ him _ crying and wants to make  _ him _ feel better too.  _ I have the most precious kid in the whole world.  _

**Author's Note:**

> This is actually the teaser for a full length I'm planning in the future...but I'm impatient and had to write and share this little snippet right NOW...


End file.
